En­joy­ing bear ne­ces­si­ties of life as a crafter

IN this week’s Craft Cre­ations we are go­ing over to the Isle of Anglesey to visit Emily Lonsdale at Bon­nie Bears And Be­yond.

“I grew up in a house full of cre­ative peo­ple. My mother was a the­atr­cial cos­tume maker and my fa­ther is a stage desinger, so you could say I started craft­ing from birth.

“I got se­ri­ous about it just be­fore I got mar­ried in 2011. My mum gave me her old sew­ing ma­chine (she got a new shiney one to make my wed­ding dress on) and I made a lot of the dec­o­ra­tions for my wed­ding my­self.

“I have largely taught my­self the skills needed for the crafts I love to do, but I am also very lucky in hav­ing many cre­ative friends who have taught me many skills and I hope I have passed on a few of my tricks as well.

“Craft­ing is best done within a com- mu­nity, that way you get to solve prob­lems to­gether and share the joy of a cre­ation well made.

“When I came to live on the is­land I found a won­der­ful com­mu­nity of crafters who share my ethos and we sup­port each other in our work.

“This is cen­tred around the craft cen­tre in Ce­meas Bay, Crafty T’arts. This is where I set up Bon­nie Bears and Be­yond.

“I love mak­ing Teddy Bears of all de­scrip­tions, al­though you will find re­al­i­tively few in my home be­cause I also love to share them with friends and fam­ily.

“I have re­cently started to make my own pat- terns. I also en­joy other forms of sew­ing, jew­ellery-mak­ing, lace-mak­ing, cro­chet, paper cut­ting and ba­si­cally any craft I can get my grubby paws on. “Mak­ing the bears is al­most like ther­apy; each one is like cre­at­ing a lit­tle per­son with a per­son­al­ity all of its own. “My two year-old daugh­ter and five yearold son agree and give each bear a lot of love be­fore they go to their new homes.” If you would like to see more of Emily’s work why not take a look at her Face­book page: https:// www. face­book. com/bon­niebears/